A Matter of Betrayal and Trust
by midori.complex
Summary: Ryou schemes to get answers from a wounded Kish by using the alien's obvious crush against him. Ichigo is left to question her loyalties as conflicting emotions abound in this dysfunctional romance. Rating apt to change. Regular updates. A MUST READ!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This story is not at all affiliated with the owners and/or creators of Tokyo Mew Mew.

Author's Note: This is how I think "To Be a Traitor" _should_ have gone.

---

The squelching heat inside the Mew Mew Café was inescapable. The summer had started off with a merciless heat wave, leaving the mew mew gang feeling sweaty and stifled in their polyester uniforms.

"So…tired" Ichigo said aloud to no one in particular as she finished cleaning the last table. Pudding was spinning plates lazily on long poles; she hadn't back flipped in the air once all day and Ichigo was starting to worry. Mint sat with her iced tea and cold cakes, looking forlorn without her idol around; Zakura had left earlier that day for a photo shoot.

"Well, another day another dollar," Retasu said unenthusiastically. She flipped the sign from _open_ to _closed_ and plopped down on a chair. Just then there was a knock on the front door.

"We're closed." The girls said in unison, none of them bothering to see who it was. The knocking continued. Finally looking up, Ichigo gasped and then glared through the glass door at Kish. He was smiling a bit, but the heat was apparently getting to him for his shoulders slumped from fatigue.

"What're you doing here?" She exclaimed. It was way too hot for this right now. She was about to morph and kick some alien butt when she felt a hand on her arm.

"Retasu?" She turned to her friend, confused. Retasu just nodded toward Kish as if to say, "Look closer". Glancing back, Ichigo noticed nothing different about the perverted alien at first. His pigtails were green and his grin was mischievous as always, but his golden eyes were…off, diminished somehow. Then she heard a gasp emit from Mint who was now on her other side.

"He's bleeding!" she pointed. Ichigo saw that behind Kish a puddle of dark blood was forming steadily. For one horrific second, she just stood there, mouth agape and mind whirling with jumbled thoughts. Then she ran to the door and wrenched it open just in time to catch her foe as he passed out.

"Kish? Kish!" Ichigo knelt to the floor under the awkward weight in her arms. His eyes were closed, his body limp and she shook him, repeating his name again and again to no avail. The rest of the mews gathered around, all shifting their weight from foot to foot, not knowing what to do.

"We have to stop the bleeding!" Ichigo cried. When the rest continued to do nothing, she snapped, "Hurry! He'll die!" Uneasily they knelt by the alien, giving each other nervous glances. The whole scenario was crazy, even suspicious. They flipped Kish onto his belly unceremoniously and found his entire back sticky with clotted blood. Retasu held a hand to her mouth, either from shock or nausea and something clicked in Ichigo's mind. In a moment of absolute clarity, her panicked thoughts were silenced, replaced with a solid goal: Save Kish. She began to bark orders, and tore his shirt away to get a better look at the wound.

"Retasu, there's a fist aid kit in Ryou's bathroom."

"Pudding, go get Ryou and Keichiro"

"Mint! Hot water and a clean rag." Mint, though impartial to being ordered around, hesitated for only a second before she left the room.

She was then left alone with the unconscious alien, her mind in sharp focus and her actions somehow detached as she untied her apron. Bunching the material, she applied pressure to where she thought the wound was. With so much blood, it was hard to tell.

Mint arrived with the water and rag, setting the ceramic bowl by her side. She squeezed the rag and began to dab at Kish's back. The bleeding had stopped, but she was worried about how much blood he had lost.

Ryou and Keichiro arrived with Pudding in a floury of hurried footsteps and unanswered questions. They stopped abruptly when they saw the mess before them, and Ichigo was only vaguely aware of Ryou kneeling across from her as she continued her task.

Minutes melted into hours. Kish's clean back revealed a lengthwise gash running across his back from is left shoulder to his right side, putting his kidney at risk. The wound was grotesquely jagged, with traces of burns along the edges. Similar slashes, though minor, sprouted from it. His head was now lying atop a makeshift pillow, courtesy of Retasu, but other than that everyone kept their distance.

Ichigo finished applying antibacterial ointment and was considering the best way to bandage it when he started to stir. His brow contorted into a wince of pain and he began to talk incoherently. A wave of relief washed over her. He was alive!

"What is he saying?" Pudding asked. Ryou looked on with a cold indifference.

"We need answers," He stated. Ichigo, who had been stroking Kish's feverish forehead soothingly, stopped to look at her boss incredulously. Interrogate him? _Now_?

But the topic was dropped when Kish became still once more, and Ichigo saved the confrontation for until after his wounds were properly dressed.

---

"What now?" Pudding piped up. Ichigo had done all she could for Kish, and now they sat, eyeing the alien.

"We'll keep him here, in a secured chamber." Ryou declared, leaving no room for argument.

"No."

"Ichigo, you can't really think that-"

"Think what? That he can be trusted?" She met his eyes, "Of course not." She stood, her legs aching from sitting on the floor. "I just think that he wouldn't feel as open to answering any questions after waking up in a metal box."

Ryou paused and she could tell he was mulling it over. "Fine," he bit out, "He'll stay with you."

"What?!" Nearly everyone in the room blurted, including Ichigo.

"He needs to feel a sense of security; he needs to feel in control." Ryou explained, "There isn't a better place,"

"Why doesn't he go back to the mother ship, or whatever that thing is called?" Mint voiced.

"Because he isn't welcomed there any longer," Retasu was quiet, but she was heard and she made sense. The fact that he was with them and not the aliens was proof enough.

"We can take him in my car," Keichiro offered, jingling a set of keys in his hand.

"Alright," Ichigo assented, looking down at the unconscious figure at her feet. It was decided.

Kish was staying with her.

At her house.

Alone.

She wondered if she should tell Ryou her parents were out of town for the week…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Author's Note: I appreciative to all of you who have reviewed. This story wouldn't be worth writing if it weren't for those words of encouragement. Thank you.

---

He looked so out of place lying there.

Amongst the various shades of pinks and assorted stuffed animals, the green of his hair combined with his pale complexion just didn't quite _fit_.

Despite the fact that she and her group had a comatose, highly hazardous alien under their voluntary responsibility, the teamwork it took to get him where he was now and the pure secrecy of it was rather thrilling and hopefully something they could all laugh about later.

Cramming Kish's dead weight into Keichiro's navy blue Suzuki was an accomplishment alone, but the getting him out of the car and into her house was when the real chaos began. It didn't help matters when Ichigo found her purse empty of her house key. Thank goodness her mother wanted large windows.

Not for the first time that evening, Ichigo rubbed her eyes with the pads of her fingers, as if willing away the strain. Just thinking about the events leading to this disastrous conclusion was enough to give her a headache.

She could not believe she had agreed to let Kish sleep there. Relaying the scene over and over in her mind, she tried to figure out exactly when her sanity had abandoned her and if it was back yet.

She had suggested the couch in the living room, but upon much rearranging of limbs and throw pillows did they realize that it was not long enough to compensate for Kish's surprisingly tall figure. It was difficult to estimate the height of a person who was constantly floating around. Mint suggested "one of the guest rooms" (Ichigo supposed the pompously rich assumed every household could afford to have several empty rooms), Retasu had asked if the couch folded out into a bed (the foreign concept soon explained to Mint), and Pudding finally brought the whole obstacle to the final solution: her bed. All the while Kish had been progressively sliding off of the inadequate sofa and landed with a resounding _bang_ to the floor, the coffee table looking moderately innocent considering it had just harmed an already thoroughly harmed Kish. She wondered if the goose egg on his head would ever recede.

Ichigo was exhausted. Beyond exhausted. She felt as if gelatin had replaced her bones and concrete had replaced everything else as she walked over to the other side of her bed. She sat as far away as humanly possible from the other occupant, and thought of what she had to do.

She came up with a fuzzy blankness as all her busy thoughts of the day seemed to attack her at once. Frustrated at herself, she saved the thinking for another time and turned to look at the sleeping form next to her. He had shifted slightly, startling her. And now, as if he knew she was there to listen, he began to mutter in his sleep. Ichigo leaned in closer, intent.

"…go," She made out. Go? Go where?

"No, not…" he was wincing, as if in pain. A cold sweat had broken on his brow. Ichigo did not dare move, not knowing if she should wake him up or not. She really wished the other Mews were with her. The cryptic feel of his words, the panic on his face and an overwhelming feeling that something was not right loomed over her. She felt as if she had just watched a particularly scary movie and was left alone in the dark. And then the most bizarre thing happened.

The power went off.

She could not help herself. Ichigo screamed. It was not until she realize that another voice had joined her did she stop.

Kish was shaking her, the lights were back on. Once she was silent, the shaking stopped, but Kish still held each of her arms. She was looking into golden eyes and all at once she was okay.

"Sh, it's okay Kitten," He hushed. The gentle tone of his words and the reassurance in his eyes alarmed her, but not as much as the odd sensation embracing her heart. It was almost painful. Hurriedly, she scurried off the bed, standing to face him only because she did not want her back to him. She felt rather silly, however, when her legs collapsed beneath her. Her arms folded on the bed as they supported her now kneeling position, the dizzy spell still whirling around her head.

"You okay?" She saw his hand reach for her, saw it pause inches from her, and then drop away. She ignored her disappointment.

"I'm fine. It's been a long night." And all at once the images of Kish's blood, the weight of his unconscious body as he fell, the jagged wound on his back…all of it came back to her and she found her head was clear when she looked up at him.

"What happened to you?" She was concerned, though she heard her inquiry come out as a demand.

"What--?" he glanced away, brow furrowed in thought.

"You came to the café," Ichigo urged, "You were bleeding, you passed out. What happened?"

For a moment Ichigo wondered if he had heard her.

"You…" He paused, "You took care of me." The intensity of his gaze and the awe of his voice left her feeling rather hot and bothered.

"W-Well, ya! What else did you expect me to do? Couldn't just let you die there… jeez,"

"You saved my life,"

That statement left Ichigo feeling very uncomfortable. Sure, she supposed she did save his life, but when he put it like that it made her feel like an imposter. She was not a noble person.

"It…it was nothing," She squeaked, embarrassed, "really." And she made the mistake of looking into his eyes, finding that she could not pull herself away.

"It was everything,"

For a second time that night, something foreign and yet inherently familiar tugged at her heart.

"…really," Kish added, grinning. Ichigo caught the mimic, but did not smile. She was still wondering at the strange way her heart was acting. Kish yawned loudly, breaking her out of her reverie. He tried to stretch, but stopped quickly with a grimace.

"Well, if you're not planning on screaming anymore, I think I'll go back to sleep…" he began to snuggle down into the covers gingerly, as to not disturb the bandages. With a shock, Ichigo noticed his bare chest, finding it difficult to not stare. Kish saw her reaction and smirked. "Where are you sleeping tonight, Kitten?"

"Here,"

The response had shocked both of them.

"I need to make sure you don't steal anything," she explained quickly, realized how bad that sounded, and added, "or if you are in pain or something…" decided that was too much and finished with, "I don't want a dead alien in my bed, okay?!" Truth of the matter was, she was terrified. She felt like a five year old scared of closet monsters.

Kish got the weirdest look on his face, as if he was torn between questioning her sanity and teasing her relentlessly. She was relieved when he simply shrugged and pulled the covers over himself.

She changed quickly into the most modest, unflattering pajamas she owned and brushed her teeth in the adjacent bathroom. When she came back he was apparently sleeping, facing away from her side. She crawled to the very edge, not bothering to get under the covers, and turned a contemplative gaze on the lump she knew to be Kish and decided that this was by far the most outlandish thing she had done in her life. With that last thought she turned away and fell fast asleep, curled into a tight ball.

---

To be continued…


End file.
